The Guy C. McElroy Papers provide information on his college education as he worked toward his goal of becoming an art historian, in addition to documenting the various positions he held in the museum and art history fields - particularly as guest curator for the exhibition "Facing History: The Black Image in American Art, 1710-1940." Aspects of his personal life are represented in the papers as well.

Biographical/historical information

Guy Clinton McElroy, art historian and curator, was born and raised in Fairmont, West Virginia. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in art education from Fairmont State College in West Virginia (1970), and was awarded the Master of Arts degree in art history specializing in nineteenth century American and French art from the University of Cincinnati (1972). His thesis topic was Robert S. Duncanson, nineteenth century African American landscapist. McElroy earned a second Master of Arts degree from Emerson College in Boston in mass communications (video production) in 1975. His thesis project was a videotape entitled, "Roxbury Pudding Stone" done for Boston's Museum of Afro-American History. Between 1976 and ca. 1980 he studied art history at the University of California, at Berkeley, initially enrolled in courses leading toward a doctoral degree and emphasizing seventeenth century Dutch painting. Later he changed his major, focusing on nineteenth century painting. Between 1983 and 1990, McElroy was enrolled at the University of Maryland as a Ph.D. student in the Department of Art. Here he also studied seventeenth century Dutch art as well as twentieth century American art, soon specializing in African-American art. A letter in the collection indicates that McElroy had been advised that the catalog he was writing for the major exhibition "Facing History: The Black Image in American Art, 1710-1940" of which he was the curator for The Corcoran Gallery of Art would serve as his Ph.D. dissertation. McElroy was informed that he was required to submit an essay about the process of formulating and planning the exhibition. His death in May 1990 prevented furthering the status of his doctoral studies beyond advanced candidacy.

McElroy held numerous art historian and curatorial positions in museums throughout the country during his twenty-year career. He served as an intern at the Cincinnati Art Museum researching and preparing a catalog essay for an exhibition of Robert S. Duncanson's paintings (1970-1971), followed by the position of Assistant Curator at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts in Salt Lake City (1972-1973). McElroy was then Assistant to the Media Director at Emerson College in Boston where he worked in the audiovisual medium (1973-1974). Also in 1974 he was Assistant Curator at the Museum of Afro-American History in Boston where among other responsibilities he conceived and executed exhibitions. At Walnut Creek Civic Art Gallery in Walnut Creek, California, McElroy assisted with the research and writing for a Navajo textile exhibit (1975). As a Rockefeller Fellow in Museum Studies at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, McElroy prepared two written visitor surveys and supplemental video interviews. He also assisted with several exhibitions (1974-1976). From 1978-1988 McElroy held two positions at the National Council of Negro Women's Bethune Museum and Archives in Washington, D.C.

This organization studies and preserves the history of African-American women. As curator from 1978-1982 he planned and coordinated the restoration and adaptive design of the Museum as an historic site, administered grant funded projects, was involved in financial development and supervised the preservation, arrangement and description of the photograph archives. From 1982-1988 McElroy served as the Assistant Director. In this capacity he was responsible for program and exhibit development, long range planning for the Museum, planning for development campaigns and was the liaison for efforts to stimulate legislation designating the Museum as a National Historic Site. At the time of his death McElroy had completed the first phase of an exhibition on Mary McLeod Bethune for the Bethune Museum and Archives.

McElroy made his most significant contribution to the art world in his capacity as Guest Curator at the Corcoran Gallery of Art (1986-1990). He curated the exhibition "Facing History: The Black Image in American Art, 1710-1940", which opened in 1990. This show, which received national attention, examines the ways in which American artists, both African American and European American, "reinforced a number of largely restrictive stereotypes of black identity", as McElroy wrote in the accompanying catalog. He conceived the show in 1986 after studying the work of nineteenth century genre painter William Sidney Mount. In addition to his position as Guest Curator at The Corcoran Gallery, McElroy served in other capacities between 1988-1990. He co-curated an exhibition sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) pertaining to the works of African-American artists from the Evans-Tibbs Collection (1988). Between November 1989 and February 1990 he held the position of Manager of Technical Information Services for the American Association of Museums. Lastly, in 1990 he was an advisory panelist for the District of Columbia Commission on the Arts and Humanities.

McElroy's stature as an art expert was further acknowledged by his appointment by the University of Maryland, Department of Art History as an Assistant Professor teaching American and African American art with responsibilities including the development of the curriculum in American and African-American art. This position was to have begun in September 1990, several months after McElroy's early death.

In addition to the catalog, Facing History..., McElroy published African-American Artists, 1880-1987: Selections from the Evans-Tibbs Collection, 1989, as well as reviews of several exhibitions. Despite professional success in the late 1980s, McElroy suffered personal tragedy. In the summer of 1987 he became a paraplegic after an automobile accident in New Mexico, and was confined to a wheelchair. On May 31, 1990 McElroy died of pulmonary embolism, cutting short a promising career.

Scope and arrangement

The Guy C. McElroy Papers date from 1969 to 1990. The papers provide information on his college education as he worked toward his goal of becoming an art historian, in addition to documenting the various positions he held in the museum and art history fields, particularly as Guest Curator for the exhibition "Facing History: The Black Image in American Art, 1710-1940". Aspects of his personal life are represented in the papers as well.

This series consists of biographical newsclippings about McElroy, personal correspondence with family and friends, resumes and applications for admittance to graduate school and associated correspondence, job applications for museums and art galleries, and information and notes pertaining to his disability. A rolodex containing names and addresses of professional colleagues and associates is also included in this series. Researchers may be interested to note that a videocassette which depicts McElroy coping with his disability at home has been transferred to the Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division.

The series contains primarily class notes, papers written by McElroy, and reference articles and research notes pertaining to his graduate work in art history at the University of Cincinnati, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Maryland.

This series contains the largest body of material in the collection and reflects McElroy's career as an art historian, illustrating his development from a general arts administrator and assistant curator to his flowering as Guest Curator of The Corcoran Art Gallery's major exhibition on African-American Art.

The "Facing History: The Black Image in American Art, 1710-1940" Exhibit, 1986-1990 (7.8 lin. ft.) subseries provides the greatest amount of research material on African-American art, the social and political milieu that produced it and its pioneering interpretation as expressed by McElroy in this collection. The exhibition entitled "Facing History: The Black Image in America, 1710-1940" which was organized by The Corcoran Gallery and was shown there from January 13 through March 25, 1990, and travelled to The Brooklyn Museum from April 20 through June 25, 1990. McElroy authored an outstanding, fully illustrated catalog bearing the same name as the exhibition, with an essay by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and contributions by Janet Levine, Francis Martin, Jr., and Claudia Vess; edited by Christopher C. French and published in 1990.

This exhibition documents... "the variety of ways artists created a visual record of African-Americans that reinforced a number of largely restrictive stereotypes of black identity. Prosperous collectors created a demand for depictions that fulfilled their own ideas of blacks as grotesque buffoons, servile menials, comic entertainers, or threatening subhumans...." Both European Americans and several African-American artists were represented in this exhibition from the disciplines of painting, drawing and sculpture. Some of the African-American artists included in the exhibition and for which there is research material in the collection are: Edward Mitchell Bannister, Robert Scott Duncanson, Joshua Johnson, Jacob Lawrence, Mary Edmonia Lewis, and Henry O. Tanner; represented European American artists are: John Singleton Copley, Thomas Eakins, Francis Guy, Winslow Homer, William Sidney Mount and John Singer Sargent. This subseries includes such formal material as proposals for the exhibition, bibliographies, list of works of art, press kit for The Corcoran Gallery, reviews of the exhibition, and congratulatory letters.

These are followed by several drafts of the catalog [including several versions on six computer diskettes (Word Perfect)] as well as reference notes and research files consisting principally of photocopies of published articles. These latter follow the order maintained by McElroy and are organized by such categories as: 18th century painting; 19th century painting; graphics, sculpture, drawings and sculpture; and 20th century painting, sculpture, prints, watercolor and decorative arts. The files are organized by name of artist within century and genre. There are also photocopies of pertinent issues of Leslie's Illustrated and Harper's Weekly as well as some additional bibliographic information on both African-American and European American artists. Please note that The Corcoran Gallery has retained McElroy's correspondence and copies of the manuscript for the catalog as the Curatorial Department felt it was more appropriate that these papers remain as part of its working files.

The Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES), 1988 (1 folder) includes correspondence between McElroy and the Smithsonian Institution regarding the exhibit he created "Black Artists from the Evans-Tibbs Collection", exhibit labels, and the manuscript bearing the same name as the exhibit. The American Association of Museums, 1989-1990 (1 folder) consists of information regarding a manual on conducting visitor surveys, in addition to personnel issues concerning McElroy's employment. The District of Columbia Commission on Arts and Humanities, 1990 (1 folder) includes a small amount of material related to McElroy's role as a panelist for the Commission and some printed matter.

The last series of this collection, is comprised of research material that cannot be identified as being associated with a particular exhibit or university with which McElroy was affiliated. This series contains photocopies of articles about African-American art and artists, papers and research notes written by McElroy, and exhibition catalogs and other printed matter.

Administrative information

Processing information

Processed by: Janice Quinter, 1/14/92

Separated material

The item(s) listed below have been sent to the division indicated, either to be retained or disposed of there. Any items that should receive special disposition are clearly marked.

Art and Artifacts Division:

1 folder of exhibit brochures and 1 shoebox of art slides

Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division:

16 audiotapes and 4 videotapes

Schomburg Photographs and Print Division:

1 record carton and 1 archives box of photographs McElroy used in his research pertaining to African Americans depicted in art, other art history research and personal photographs.

Other:

Typescript Collection: "Signals of Future Light: The Celebration of Hope in the Poetry of Robert Hayden" by Michael Wachholz, 1988.